In which it has been a pretty intense month; there is a lot to unpack about Psylocke; we are confused by hip teen lingo; Cyclops definitively lacks game; organized crime is anything but; and the mystery of the third Summers brother officially begins.

What, you thought this whole thing was just gonna be photos of cats? (Sorry) (X-Force #20)

Whoops. (X-Force #20)

That hair, though! Why, Shatterstar? WHY? (X-Force #20)

Those spacesuits look incredibly cumbersome. (X-Force #20)

You never forget your favorite ship. (X-Force #20)

That is a GREAT use of a spread. (X-Force #20)

X-Force really only has the one setting. (X-Force #21)

Aw. AW. (X-Force #21)

AWWWWWWWWW (X-Force #21)

“THE TEETH COMMAND IT!” (X-Force #21)

And that’s why you always leave a note. (X-Force #21)

“The guns were inside you all along!” (X-Force #22)

Well, then. (X-Force #22)

But he looks so happy about it! (X-Force #22)

I was gonna make a callback to that one tangent about how Cable probably carries a bunch of tampons because they are useful and he seems like the kind of dude who has a good attitude about menstruation, but it seemed too forced. (X-Force #22)

This is both excessive and silly, Gideon. (X-Force #22)

“Am I forever damned to eat crackers sideways?!” (X-Force #23)

Look at him! He’s just propped up in the corner! (X-Force #23)

OH, SNAP! (X-Force #23)

I’m still kind of peeved that this isn’t spelled out in Sam’s accent. It just feels wrong like this. (X-Force #23)

In which Miles stops worrying and learns to love X-Force; you should absolutely not google the phrase “face jam”; the kids take a field trip to Graymalkin; Jay reverse-engineers Shatterstar’s hair; Donald Pierce gets a new job; Sam Guthrie is the most trustworthy man in the Marvel Universe; Cable is your guns grandma; Professor earns its name; X-Force really only has one setting; and not every Sluggo is lit.

In which X-Cutioner’s Song may be over, but its repercussions continue; Uncanny X-Men hits a major milestone; superhero comics are and always have been political; Bishop learns to banter; the X-Men gain an unlikely ally; and Magneto remains exceptionally difficult to kill.

X-PLAINED:

Jay & Miles at VVCBF

Uncanny X-Men #298-300

The Acolytes (more) (again)

The Upstarts (more) (again)

Several important lessons

A very fancy room

A very fancy brain

The unpleasant fate of Sharon Friedlander

The all-new, all-different Acolytes

Carmella Unuscione

The return of one of our favorite antagonists

A sick burn

The fate of Asteroid M

Molting

A debate

Graydon Creed (more) (again)

The tentative redemption of Robert Kelly

How to lose a debate with Joe Biden

A large number of prescient political references

Friends of Humanity

How to engage with a fascist in a televised debate

Noah DuBois

Fatale

A generic rural mob

Milan

A narratively convenient superpower

Amelia Voght

Seamus Mellencamp

Neophyte

The gospel of Magneto

A joyous reunion

The helmet that wouldn’t die

Ponytail ethics

Timelust

Several accents

The current state of Rogue’s powers

NEXT EPISODE: All Emma All Episode (feat. Seanan McGuire, Leah Williams, and more)!

In which Dr. Andrea Letamendi of Arkham Sessions joins us to analyze some analysis; Doc Samson has major scope-of-practice issues; Ren & Stimpy references continue to fail to age well; it’s hard to be Quicksilver; Val Cooper is not your friend; Polaris pretty much always deserves better; Charles Xavier should not be allowed to inhabit positions of power; and labels are often not the best tools for good representations of mental illness and neurodivergence.

In which “wolves” proves a remarkably broad category in the 616; we at least nominally wrap up X-Cutioner’s Song; Stryfe could really use a style guide; we issue our first-ever music challenge; Jubilee is an agent of chaos; Gambit’s powers are a metaphor; Charles Xavier has a complicated relationship to disability; the quality of Jay’s penmanship is a matter of official record; Boom Boom is a remarkably good costume designer; Cannonball comes into his own as a leader; and every “WHAT?!” you hear on this show is fresh and original.

X-PLAINED:

Wolves, to a very limited extent

Jay & Miles (kinda) at NYCC

Transcripts

X-Cutioner’s Song

Stryfe’s Strike File

Uncanny X-Men #297

X-Force #19

A gentle bird caught in a swirling tornado of lust and desperation

Shades of me

Shades of you

Shades of them

Our first-ever music challenge

Some foreshadowing

Nostalgia

A very nice hug

The one good side effect of Stryfe’s technoorganic virus

Charles Xavier vs. disability politics

Several practical jokes in very poor taste

Teacher-student bonding

An excellent epithet

Some lettering choices

An extended Hail Caesar riff

The Clooney Scale

An enduring mystery

Clone powers

Exclamatory logistics

NEXT EPISODE: Hey, remember Excalibur?

MUSIC CHALLENGE: Write and record a song based on or using text from Stryfe’s Strike File (or any of his rants from X-Cutioner’s Song)! Send your masterpieces (or links to ’em) to xplainthexmen(at)gmail(dot)com, with the subject STRYFE SONG!